A mouse is a must-have item on any computers. When the mouse is moved across a desktop, the mouse cursor on the display moves accordingly. The mouse cursor can be pointed anywhere on the screen, or be used to scroll a selected window.
The early mouse has only three buttons. It follows that users can only vertically or horizontally scroll the selected window through pointing the mouse cursor to the vertical or horizontal scrollbar. The modern mouse has a scroll-wheel. When users rotate up or down the scroll-wheel, the selected window is scrolled up or down accordingly. However, users still need to point the mouse cursor to the horizontal scrollbar if they want to horizontally scroll the selected window. According to the sensor, the wheel-mouse can be categorized to an optical mouse and a laser mouse, and the laser mouse is much surface-independent than the optical mouse.
FIG. 1A is a diagram showing a wheel-mouse in prior art. The wheel-mouse 10 consists of: a left-button 12, a middle-button 14, a right-button 16, and a scroll-wheel 18. When users press the left-button 12, a left-button-pressed signal is derived and outputted from the wheel-mouse 10 to a host; when users press the middle-button 14, a middle-button-pressed signal is derived and outputted from the wheel-mouse 10 to the host; when users press the right-button 16, a right-button-pressed signal is derived and outputted from the wheel-mouse 10 to the host. Moreover, when users rotate up the scroll-wheel 18, a scrolling-up signal is derived and outputted from the wheel-mouse 10 to the host; when users rotate down the scroll-wheel 18, a scrolling-down signal is derived and outputted from the wheel-mouse 10 to the host.
FIG. 1B is a schematic diagram showing the circuit configuration of the prior-art wheel-mouse depicted in FIG. 1A. The wheel-mouse circuit consists of: a micro-controller 20 (MCU), a left-middle-right button unit 22, and a vertical-scrolling wheel unit 24. The micro-controller 20 (MCU) further consists of: three I/O pins, that is, a left-button signal input terminal 202, a middle-button signal input terminal 204, and a right-button signal input terminal 206. The left-middle-right button unit 22 further consists of: a left-button switch (LB), a middle-button switch (MB), and a right-button switch (RB). The three I/O pins of the micro-controller 20 (MCU), that is the left-button signal input terminal 202, the middle-button signal input terminal 204, and the right-button signal input terminal 206, are connected to a supply power (Vcc) through the left-button switch (LB), the middle-button switch (MB), and the right-button switch (RB), respectively. Moreover, the vertical-scrolling wheel unit 24 is connected to the micro-controller 20 (MCU).
As depicted in FIG. 1B, when users press a left-button of a wheel-mouse, the left-button switch (LB) is at close position (ON), the middle-button switch (MB) and the right-button switch (RB) are at open position (OFF). It follows that a high-level signal, derived from the supply power (Vcc), is outputted to the left-button signal input terminal 202, a low-level signal is outputted to the middle-button signal input terminal 204 and the right-button signal input terminal 206 of the micro-controller 20 (MCU). According to the level of the signals received by the left-button signal input terminal 202, the middle-button signal input terminal 204, and the right-button signal input terminal 206, that is (1,0,0), the micro-controller 20 (MCU) outputs the left-button-pressed signal to the host. Similarly, when users press a middle-button of a wheel-mouse, the middle-button switch (MB) is at close position (ON), the left-button switch (LB) and the right-button switch (RB) are at open position (OFF). It follows that a high-level signal, derived from the supply power (Vcc), is outputted to the middle-button signal input terminal 204, a low-level signal is outputted to the left-button signal input terminal 202 and the right-button signal input terminal 206 of the micro-controller 20 (MCU). According to the level of the signals received by the left-button signal input terminal 202, the middle-button signal input terminal 204, and the right-button signal input terminal 206, that is (0,1,0), the micro-controller 20 (MCU) outputs the middle-button-pressed signal to the host. Similarly, when users press a right-button of a wheel-mouse, the right-button switch (RB) is at close position (ON), the left-button switch (LB) and the middle-button switch (MB) are at open position (OFF). It follows that a high-level signal, derived from the supply power (Vcc), is outputted to the right-button signal input terminal 206, a low-level signal is outputted to the left-button signal input terminal 202 and the middle-button signal input terminal 204 of the micro-controller 20 (MCU). According to the level of the signals received by the left-button signal input terminal 202, the middle-button signal input terminal 204, and the right-button signal input terminal 206, that is (0,0,1), the micro-controller 20 (MCU) outputs the right-button-pressed signal to the host. Moreover, the micro-controller 20 (MCU) can output a scrolling-up signal and a scrolling-down signal to the host according to the signals outputted from the vertical-scrolling wheel unit 24.
Conventionally, the scroll-wheel is designed for scrolling up or scrolling down a selected window. In 2003, Microsoft submitted a tilt-wheel mouse. Not only provide the scrolling-up and scrolling-down functions, the tilt-wheel mouse also provides the scrolling-left and the scrolling-right functions. That is, when the tilt-wheel is used left tilt, the selected window will be scrolled left, and when the tilt-wheel is used right tilt, the selected window will be scrolled right.
FIG. 2A is a diagram showing a tilt-wheel mouse in prior art. The tilt-wheel mouse 30 consists of: a left-button 32, a middle-button 34, a right-button 36, and a tilt-wheel 38. The tilt-wheel mouse 30 is an essentially conventional wheel-mouse except the tilt-wheel mouse 30 outputs a scrolling-left signal to the host when users left tilts the tilt-wheel 38; and the tilt-wheel mouse 30 outputs a scrolling-right signal to the host when users right tilts the tilt-wheel 38.
FIG. 2B is a schematic diagram showing the circuit configuration of the prior-art tilt-wheel mouse depicted in FIG. 2A. The tilt-wheel mouse circuit consists of: a micro-controller 40 (MCU), the left-middle-right button unit 22, the vertical-scrolling wheel unit 24, and a horizontal-scrolling button unit 42. The horizontal-scrolling button unit 42 further consists of: a left-tilt-button switch (LTB) and a right-tilt-button switch (RTB), where the left-tilt-button switch (LTB) will be triggered when users left tilt the tilt-wheel, and the right-tilt-button switch (RTB) will be triggered when users right tilt the tilt-wheel. Compared to the micro controller 20 (MCU) depicted in FIG. 2B, the micro-controller 40 (MCU) has another two I/O pins, that is a left-tilt signal input terminal 402 and a right-tilt signal input terminal 404. The left-tilt signal input terminal 402 and the right-tilt signal input terminal 404 are connected to a supply power (Vcc) through the left-tilt-button switch (LTB) and the right-tilt-button switch (RTB), respectively.
As depicted in FIG. 2B, when users left tilt a tile-wheel of a tilt-wheel mouse, the left-tilt-button switch (LTB) is at close position (ON) and the right-tilt-button switch (RTB) is at open position (OFF). It follows that a high-level signal, derived from the supply power (Vcc), is outputted to the left-tilt signal input terminal 402, and a low-level signal is outputted to the right-tilt signal input terminal 404 of the micro-controller 40 (MCU). According to the level of the signals received by the left-tilt signal input terminal 402 and the right-tilt signal input terminal 404, that is (1,0), the micro-controller 40 (MCU) outputs a scrolling-left signal to the host. Similarly, when users right tilt a tile-wheel of a tilt-wheel mouse, the right-tilt-button switch (RTB) is at close position (ON) and the left-tilt-button switch (LTB) is at open position (OFF). It follows that a high-level signal, derived from the supply power (Vcc), is outputted to the right-tilt signal input terminal 404, and a low-level signal is outputted to the left-tilt signal input terminal 402 of the micro-controller 40 (MCU). According to the level of the signals received by the left-tilt signal input terminal 402 and the right-tilt signal input terminal 404, that is (0,1), the micro-controller 40 (MCU) outputs a scrolling-right signal to the host.
Obviously, for providing the extra functions of scrolling-left and scrolling-right in a conventional tilt-wheel mouse, another two I/O pins, that is the left-tilt signal input terminal 402 and the right-tilt signal input terminal 404, must be implemented in the micro-controller 40. It results in a relatively high manufacturing cost and a relatively large package size of the micro-controller 40 (MCU).